High-gain multibeam gnss antenna

Abstract

A multibeam Radio Frequency (RF) lens antenna is designed as a receiver for Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) applications, such as GPS (Global Positioning System), Galileo, GLONASS, COMPASS, and others. The RF lens and plurality of associated feed elements and receiver circuits combine to form a plurality of resulting high-gain relatively narrow beams that, taken together, allow reception of signals from GNSS satellites over the entire upper hemisphere. Any kind of RF lens can be used, where the lens can be of homogeneous or inhomogeneous, dielectric or metamaterial/metasurface construction. The benefit of this approach to build a GNSS receiver over existing alternatives is increased gain and decreased noise at each receiver, which improves the signal to noise ratio (SNR) and improves the accuracy and reliability of the position and time measurements, while also reducing the impact of, and sensitivity to, interference, jamming, and spoofing signals. The approaches described in this patent can be combined with existing signal processing and accuracy improvement methods (such as Real-Time Kinematic (RTK), Precise-Point Positioning (PPP), and Differential GPS (DGPS)) for further benefits. This system has applications within the surveying, maritime, land mobility, aerospace, and government positioning market areas.

1 . An antenna comprising:
 a radio frequency lens;   a plurality of feeds, at least some of which provide a plurality of directive beams from a single shared aperture of said radio frequency lens and from different directions within a field of view of the; and   a processing device configured to independently detect signals from each of the plurality of directive beams, extract detected signals from each of the plurality of beams, de-duplicate duplicate detected signals present in multiple beams of the plurality of directive beams, and jointly processes process the de-duplicated signals to determine a time and position of said antenna.   
     
     
         2 .- 16 . (canceled) 
     
     
         17 . The antenna of  claim 1 , wherein each feed of the plurality of feeds provides a plurality of directive beams from the single shared aperture.